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Was doing some reading last night and it put into context just how hard a natural 700 pound deadlift is to achieve.

Bob Peoples set a deadlift record of 719 pounds, and this record stood for 50 years.

His training is interesting because he deadlifted heavy nearly day, and also focused quite often on eccentric training. In fact, he developed machines to lift the weight for him so he could practice lowering it.

I also read he would specialise on either the squat or deadlift for weeks at a time. When he was working the deadlift he would do that lift almost every day to the exclusion of much else. He would then switch to squats and progress on those like that too.

Similar system to John Davis and Doug Hepburn from what i've read, they would typically specialise on one big lift at a time. However both Davis and Hepburn would specialise on a quick lift and always squat as an accessory.

Nice post Fazc. I don't know much about John Davis and his training, and wasn't aware that Peoples would shift focus like that.

I bought the back collection of the Dino Files some years ago, there was quite a lot of information about Davis in them. Kubik seemed quite impressed with his accomplishments.

This is going from memory but what he would typically do is something like this:

M/W/F

Snatch 5 x doubles
Squat 3 x 5

M/W/F

Clean & Jerk 5 doubles
Squat 3 x 5

He'd work the Snatch & Squat for a few weeks untill he felt a plateau and then switch to the C&J & Squat. I also heard he would Bench for 5 x triples every now and again too.

I'm sure he would have done some accessory work and quite frankly if we consider who wrote this I wouldn't be surprised if it was abbreviated to fit more in line with the Dino philosophy and whatever strawman he was trying to knock over at the time But I digress!

I'm inclined to believe the 5 doubles or 5 singles approach as that was typical of the Oly lifters at the time such as Stanko and the York lot. Hepburn had an epiphany and soon after raised the bar doing upto 10 singles which was his *magic formula* as he put it in his biography.

He'd work the Snatch & Squat for a few weeks untill he felt a plateau and then switch to the C&J & Squat. I also heard he would Bench for 5 x triples every now and again too.

I'm sure he would have done some accessory work and quite frankly if we consider who wrote this I wouldn't be surprised if it was abbreviated to fit more in line with the Dino philosophy and whatever strawman he was trying to knock over at the time But I digress!

I'm inclined to believe the 5 doubles or 5 singles approach as that was typical of the Oly lifters at the time such as Stanko and the York lot. Hepburn had an epiphany and soon after raised the bar doing upto 10 singles which was his *magic formula* as he put it in his biography.

I've yet to read Dino training and wasn't aware that it was a bit dogmatic.

It's interesting how this frequent style of training has gone the way of the dinosaur, no pun intended. I have never personally researched how powerlifting and strength sports moved away from approaches like this to the once a week per big lift that became so popular. I'm not sure if powerlifting followed the path of bodybuilding, not how much of it has to do with drug use.

I'm not sure if powerlifting followed the path of bodybuilding, not how much of it has to do with drug use.

I believe they both followed the drug path together. Training for either BB or PL doesn't have to be massively different in the off-season. Think of the "Original Arnold" routine for mass, the Park routines or for a PL example Hepburns constant weight routines, they all had these fundamental principles:

1) Stay injury free, which really is the big one. The longer you're in the game productively the more you'll lift.
2) Get stronger in the bigger exercises for reps.

Power guys like Doug Young would of course do low(er) reps with the bulk of their work in the power exercises. Physique guys would usually (not always) work with high(er) reps and would not neccessarily stick to the power exercises, Ross's Incline DB. Press comes to mind.

The marked differences are only in-season/pre-competition. Where one will specialise in strength or physique goals. These have traditionally been shorter 12-16 week cycles leading upto a competition. I have a book here called The Bench Press which details training cycles of many of the top Benchers ever from the 60's to the 90's and each one of them said they train with higher reps in the off-season and aim to get stronger for reps.

Maxing out in the gym seems to be a relatively new concept, even the original WSB crew back in the day never did that. They rotated exercises for sure and had lower weight/speed days but rarely were training maxes talked about. Lower reps were done for more volume.

I'm sure part of the reason is escalating drug-use. With anabolic hormones swimming around in the body throughout the week, the body would not need to be trained three times or even two times a week. Once is plenty. In that context hitting the lift as hard you can once a week makes sense.

Maxing out in the gym seems to be a relatively new concept, even the original WSB crew back in the day never did that. They rotated exercises for sure and had lower weight/speed days but rarely were training maxes talked about. Lower reps were done for more volume.

I'm sure part of the reason is escalating drug-use. With anabolic hormones swimming around in the body throughout the week, the body would not need to be trained three times or even two times a week. Once is plenty. In that context hitting the lift as hard you can once a week makes sense.

I would also add that I believe most Westside lifters to use training gear. As I have never trained heavy in gear, I am not sure of it's impact. But I do wonder how much this changed the Westside dynamic.